1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a structure for the display and dispensing of tickets, such as lottery tickets. More particularly, this invention relates to a ticket dispensing device having a door that includes a slot through which the tickets are dispensed and a security shield associated with the door to prevent the dispensing of tickets when desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of box-like structures for displaying and dispensing of lottery tickets has been known for several decades. Generally, such dispensers have common characteristics such as transparent walls through which a stack of lottery tickets may be seen, a pivotally movable door that can be locked and having a slotted portion through which the tickets may be manually dispensed.
Although the use of the above described dispensers provides a relatively secure means for the dispensing of lottery tickets so long as the dispenser is within view of an attendant, such as a sales clerk, at a point of sale in a convenience store. However, if the attendant has to leave the point of sale for any reason so that the dispenser is left unattended, it is easily possible for customers to steal the lottery tickets from a dispenser by pulling the tickets through the dispensing slot.
At the current time, there is no commercially available lottery ticket dispenser that has a simple but yet efficient method for covering the dispensing slot of a dispenser to prevent unauthorized ticket dispensing therethrough. The present invention is designed to overcome this deficiency of current lottery ticket dispensers and does so in a relatively economical and simplistic fashion.